


Foolish

by shinylostcause



Category: The Animals of Farthing Wood (TV)
Genre: Love Story, animals farthing wood, joker telling his weird stories, so basically foxes talking about stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-03 07:53:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1737017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinylostcause/pseuds/shinylostcause
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The tepid summer's day drew to a close. As the crickets chirred in the distance and the frogs croaked, the sun imbued the sky with its deep orange blood, which painted a soft, vivid fire on the fur of the animals.<br/>Joker lay on a rock, visibly bored, wagging his tail up and down, when several other animals looked up to him and took their usual places around him – like always when it was time for a story.<br/>His white teeth flashed in the faint light of the sun as he grinned: "A love story, you say? Alright. In fact, I know one…</p>
            </blockquote>





	Foolish

**Author's Note:**

> oh god this is so old. I was like 17 years old so yeah. I used to write fanfictions for "animals farthing wood" and created whole generations of foxes. I still kinda like it so I decided to upload it.  
> It was written in german and translated by my best friend. Thanks again <3
> 
> Joker is a story teller who tells weird stories. This one's supposed to be a love story.

The tepid summer's day drew to a close. As the crickets chirred in the distance and the frogs croaked, the sun imbued the sky with its deep orange blood, which painted a soft, vivid fire on the fur of the animals.  
Joker lay on a rock, visibly bored, wagging his tail up and down, when several other animals looked up to him and took their usual places around him – like always when it was time for a story.  
A small mouse trembled as his grim look touched hers, and she cheeped confusedly.  
"Get it on, Joker, I wanna go hunting later on!" Restless murmured and shook his dusty pelt. Silvery, laying beside him, snatched at him crabbily and what her look meant, was obvious: One more word and he would lose an ear.  
Joker grimaced and didn't even give Restless the pleasure of getting angry: "Impatience isn't the key here. An insignificant being like you can't badger me."  
Restless raised his chaps, but Silvery's high yapping stopped him in a second. Sullenly he let himself fall into the grass and tried to ignore the snickering pups.  
"Alright then", Joker sighed and sat up a bit, "I'm going to tell you a story now…"  
"Tell us something different than usual!", Dreamer squeaked, "I always have nightmares because of you!"  
Joker smiled and twitched with one ear: "Then you're obviously not ready to listen to true stories. Go, run to your mother and make her tell of Fireheart or whatever his name was, I don't have time for that."  
"Pretty rude!" Dreamer, who was very friendly by nature, said and pretended that he saw something interesting in the distance.  
"He does have a point" Fallfur added feebly and sought Naranja's confirmation, but she was just gnawing at a bone, not showing any interest.  
"Tell us a love story, Joker!" Goldsight cheered and wagged her tail happily.  
Some of the vixens threw delighted, puzzled or incomprehensible looks at her.  
"A love story?" Joker repeated and grimaced, "are you serious? I mean…"  
She just nodded eagerly: „Please! You've never told us such a story. Or should I just assume that you don't know as many stories as you say you do…?" she added, grinning mischievously.  
Joker raised an eyebrow: "Nice try, little vixen. But oh well. If you insist on it…let me think…"  
His white teeth flashed in the faint light of the sun as he grinned: "A love story, you say? Alright. In fact, I know one…  
Once upon a time, there was a place, far south from here, where the summers were long and the winters short. There was a dale, wide and even, surrounded by white mountains, which is why it was known as the "crown dale". The flowers that grew on the wide, green meadows, where partly deep red, party snow white and danced in the tepid wind that encircled the minds of the animals.  
And it came to pass that a young male fox reached this dale, searching for adventure and a new home. There was nothing extraordinary about this fox, in fact, there wasn't even something outstanding beautiful about him. He was a normal red fox with deep orange fur and brownish legs. This is the reason his mother gave him the name Orúi, which means something like "ordinary". Orúi wasn't proud of this name, but he beared it with all the dignity he could.  
Being two years old one couldn't call him wise, but his mind was clear and his legs swift.  
One day, so it is told, Orúi reached this dale whose wide meadows ceased abruptly at the border of a wood. As soon as his paws left the green of the grass and he scouted boldly and daringly into the wood, a monster jumped out…"  
"A monster?!" Harmony shouted in horror, but was silenced by the hisses of the others.  
Joker's face was tense, but he ignored this interjection and continued: "A monster, like I said. With thundering steps and an enormous body it shot out of the trees, right into Orúi's direction, who let himself fall onto the ground and stared at the animal above him.  
The huge beast came to a hold as soon as it saw the fox. Its deep breath and vivid mind astonished the young fox, but his heart stopped for a few second when he saw the sprawling antlers on its head, with peaks that seemed strong enough to spear him.  
Orúi had never lived in the lowlands or highlands, he came from a town of the humans, which was why he did not realise that this animals was a stag was almost fainted in fear."  
"Out of my way, puny fox, or my hooves will part your head, as true as I'm standing here!" the beast roared in a weird manner of speaking. Orúi could understand the words halfway and got on his stumbling legs.  
"Who…are you?" he stuttered, trembling unintentionally.  
"What ludicrous things are you asking?" the other one called angrily, "I'm a stag, an ordinary deer and guardian of the herd. You are a fox, and a stupid one on top, I might add."  
Indignantly Orúi showed his teeth – his mind was the only extraordinary thing about him.  
"I'm not stupid, I'm just not from around here. Am I supposed to know everything from birth? I think you are foolish."  
"Foolish?" the stag roared, "You are pretentious, young fox, although I could kill you with one kick. What is you name?"  
"Orúi", the fox admitted, sounding a bit embarrassed, but still adding strength to his look.  
The stag however did not know the language of foxes and did not think of any deeper meaning: "A weird name. It sounds like the cry of an owl. My name is Lararche."  
"Your name sounds weird for me too", the fox said and tilted his head sideways.  
Hazestar sneezed and Joker looked at her.  
"Sorry" she murmured embarrassedly.  
"Hey, I thought this was a love story?" Feather called, "Is the fox falling in love with the stag?"  
"You moron, they're both male!" Stormy barked.  
"Silence!" Joker snarled and the scared pups bowed their heads .  
"If you could listen you wouldn't have to ask questions. So stay quiet!"  
He turned his head and continued: "The red fox Orúi and the stag Lararche talked for a long time. They may were enemies, but they couldn't deny their fascination for each other. At the end of the day Orúi asked the stag if there was a water spring nearby. The stag explained the way to the fox, with a few difficulties since a stag oriented himself on other things like certain plants and branches. The fox thanked him quickely and disappeared with a jump into the wood. Thanks to his vivid mind he memorised the directions of the stag and could refresh himself with the cool water. When he turned around, he saw a movement in the dark between the bushes, much to his surprise – and as the wind turned around he smelled a scent, sweet like a thousand flowers on a morning.  
"Who are you?" he called and looked around, with his heart pounding and his legs trembling. Finally a fox stepped out of the rustling bushes. Orúi had never seen a vixen, still he was fascinated by her timid manners and her fragile figure. The young, but for her age still small vixen shook her light pelt which seemed to shimmer in the upcoming moonlight.  
Her contrasting dark eyes revealed honesty, but also fear.  
"Who are you?" she repeated his question. Her voice wasn't very high, but also not too deep. It was rich, but still gentle. The vixen wasn't particularly pretty, but with every word the male fox fell for her a bit more. He introduced himself and asked for her name once more.  
"My name is Glîn", she said hesitantly – she was also attracted to the other fox.  
Her name meant "Shimmer" and just like Orúi's name it resembled her perfectly.  
"I need to admit that you are the most wonderful being I've ever seen…", it busted out of the male – he still was a stripling despite his two years.  
"I mean, I haven't seen a lot of beings in this world, I didn't even know what a stag was…", he babbled on, he didn't know such feelings.  
"You're foolish" was all the small vixen answered, "You don't know me."  
She was honest, too honest and very shy. Orúi needed to admit that he really did not know her and that he got very pushy.  
Embarrassed he wanted to leave, but Glîn's face filled itself with peace: "I can't deny that I find you interesting. Hunt with me."  
And so he did. Together they went through the dark, thick forest, seeking for tracks, hunting for mice.  
"Where are you from?" she asked, when they were exploring the wood, their bellies filled.  
Orúi, having difficulties with words despite his vivid mind, sank his ears and thought of a wording: "From there, where the humans live."  
"What are humans?"  
Glîn was young and the presence of this young male confused her heart. The male thought once more: "They are huge beings who live in opulence and throw away their prey even when they just ate bit. They are not evil, but not good either."  
The vixen could not quite grasp the point, but she did not ask any further so she wouldn't look dumb.  
"Oh, I should warn you", she called when she remembered something, "in the west there is an area which you must not enter. It's surrounded by a broad, muddy river, which one can cross if he has the skills. But on the other side of the river, death awaits you."  
"Death?" Orúi wondered, "Why? I thought this is a peaceful land."  
"As long as you stay away from the west, it is. It's forbidden to go there", she added and stared at him for a few heartbeats with her deep brown, honest eyes.  
Orúi couldn't even contain himself while looking at her delicate face. Maybe he just knew her briefly, but her very presence made his blood boil.  
"Glîn, I may am foolish, but I need to ask you…" he started, but didn't know how to say the rest.  
"You really are foolish", she whispered almost inaudible and lowered her look: "You really want to ask me such a thing on the day we met?"  
"Well, technically we met at daylight, now it's night." he answered boldly, "Spend the rest of your life with me, and I promise, you won't regret it!"  
She ignored his trembling face and his puffed breast. The vixen snorted and continued the walk: "And if I spend the rest of my life with you, as your companion, what good would that do to you? You wouldn't be able to find a vixen that gives birth to your pups, that loves you, with another vixen by your side."  
"But…you have to understand, that I…" Orúi started again because the vixen misunderstood him. But then he had an idea. Glîn thought he was foolish, thus he had to prove to her that it wasn't true.  
"I need to go. Wait for me, I will be back."  
He uttered no other word and disappeared between the trees. Glîn stared after him, comfused and with a certain idea of what he wanted to do which she tried to ignore.  
"Foolish" she sighed and turned around.

The paws of the fox did hardly touch the ground, so fast and mutedly he was running through the silent wood at night. He didn't even dare to breathe because restlessness and joy were catching his heart at the same time.  
He came to the crone dale to seek adventure. In his keenest thoughts he could never have imagined that this adventure could be a being like Glîn, but still it was and this is why he had to seek another adventure.  
His steps got slower as soon as he could hear the dull rushing of the river. Like the vixen said, the river was broad and muddy, but the stream was strong and the fox lost it's courage to try and cross it.  
When he wanted to turn around and leave, he saw that the stag Lararche was just stepping out of the wood, who shook his antlers whilst snorting surprised when seeing Orúi.  
"Fox!" He stated, „Fate is really bonding me with fools."  
Amused Orúi sank his ears and looked at the river: „Say, Lararche, could you help me to cross this river?"  
The stag lokked at him with distrustful eyes: "Why would you want to cross it? On the other side, there's nothing but death."  
"I know. But I absolutely need to cross it." The fox answered with strength in both look and voice.  
The stag shook his antlers once more: "You're foolish. But if it's your wish…"  
The word "foolish" slowly became a burden to the fox and he grimaced.  
'Am I really like that?' he thought – after all, this vivid mind was his only feature.  
Lararche stepped into the river, whose stream tried to fight against the muscular and brawny body of the stag, without success. Still, the stag leaned against the stream and snorted into the direction of the fox.  
"Get on. It isn't easy for a small animal such as yourself!"  
"What shall I do?", Orúi asked, scared by now.  
The stag sank his head so that the peaks touched the water: "Jump into the water and hold onto the peaks with your teeth. If something breaks off, I will squash you."  
The fox's body shook, but he jumped into the river – and got carried to the side immediately. The water was stronger than Orúi had assumed. Be he got pushed against the barrel of the stag and paddled to the peaks, until he could reach them with his teeth. The stag lifted his mighty head and in a single bound the red fox could almost reach the other riverside of the river that wasn't so broad for the stag.  
Orúi shook his pelt and thanked Lararche out loud who stepped out of the river.  
"But how will I get back?" the red fox cried.  
"When, no, if you come back", the stag, wet to his shoulders answered, "I will await you here and bring you back."  
"Why are you so nice?" Orúi needed to ask.  
"For a simple reason: You're not going to return."  
Orúi didn't spend any more thoughts on those words of the stag – he smiled, it was silly to listen to the prey. Their views were so different from his, thus what Lararche considered a danger was nothing more than a minor matter to him.  
But oh, believe me, he shall regret that he came near this place of death.  
They smelled him long before he even noted their existence. They had surrounded him before he could think of going back.  
They were huge – not as huge as a stag, but pretty big, double, no, triple the size of the fox. He had seen a few dogs in the cities. Dogs – well, they did resemble foxes, a bit at least. They only had a different method of thinking and made different sounds.  
But those beast, as strange as it sounds, resembled cats. Well, you all know cats, I assume? Good. They hissed, showed their teeth and had unspeakable long tails whipping around their legs, impatient, lurking. Their fur was sand brown, with dark markings on their snout. Thir voices were deep, but contained a weird buzzing or trembling.  
Orúi was surrounded by four mountain lions, also called pumas. There were a grown-up male and a female, accompanied by two young ones, who were old enough to part from their parents soon.  
"What are you doing here?" the female hissed and put her ears back aggressively.  
Her voice sounded husky and higher than the fox had expected, but she was hard to understand.  
"I…I…" the young fox stuttered. His courage wasn't outstanding, like the rest of him.  
"Answer before I kill you!" the male hissed and buzzed threateningly.  
"It makes no sense trying to talk to him" one of the young ones said, a male. Orúi grimaced when he realised that the eyes of this young contained the same honesty like Glîn's eyes or the eyes of any other fox whose heart was clean.  
But those beings weren't foxes, they were the enemy, they were evil…  
Orúi shook his head. 'Humans are neither good nor bad' he remembered and suddenly he realised that it was like that with every being.  
"I don't want to harm you!" he finally said. His heartbeat was fast, but he tried to keep a cool head.  
The male lifted up his head and licked his mouth: "We won't eat you. But you entered our lands. We can't tolerate that."  
The fur on the back of the fox lifted as he noticed that one of the young was getting near him.  
In a heartbeat he turned around and tried to run away, but he ran straight into the young puma. The clumsy giant paws of the young beat into his meat and the fox screamed in pain and shock. When he saw that the grip increased he paniced and threw his head around. His teeth grabbed the next thing they could reach, and he pressed his jaws together.  
The body of the young slacked, lazy and motionless it glided in the ground and fell to the side…lifeless.  
Blood ran out of the ripped throat and covered the ground with vivid red.  
The scream of the mother made Orúi realise what he had done. He had killed a young, the child of a mountain lion.  
With a dazed grimace he stumbled backwards.  
"What have you done?" the father shouted in shock and rage, "Just what have you done?!"  
"No, I…" Orúi stuttered and shook his head. Confused and shattered as they were, the downscaled family couldn't follow him when he ran away in his confused state.  
Horror wandered through his body. For sure, he was a predator, and predators had to kill. But only for food. He did kill the young one to survive, but still he had robbed a pup's life, young as it was, you could call him that, it was nothing more than a pup.  
He pressed his jaws together in shock when he saw then he had reached the river and that he was standing in front of the huge Lararche.  
The stag threw a cold look at him and snorted.  
"I told you not to go there" he said, shaking his head with creaking antlers.  
The fox sank his head: "I didn't want to…"  
"And now you created something that was never meant for this wood!" the stag roared, "Revenge! Revenge which is meant only for humans! You are from the cities, you've lived there. There really is something human about you!"  
Orúi stared into the nothingness: "That's not right…I just wanted to convince Glîn…" he flinched. Now that he had failed, what would she do? Would she chase him away? Call him "foolish" once more or even worse? For sure…  
Orúi couldn't do anything else, he asked Lararche to help him cross the river once more. And since the stag had promised, he did so.  
The fox ran faster than ever, one couldn't even see him, fast and ordinary as he was.  
The night was almost over and the dawn imbued the sky into bloody red.  
With quick steps he followed his memory, crossed several paths, got lost two times and finally reached the water spring.  
His heart was beating like mad, his breath was heavy and icy cold crawled upon him as he stepped onto the dark meadow, painted with orange light, and looked around. He walked on, called her name, oh, he called her so longingly. His heart longed for her, and hers for him, he knew this now.  
Orúi stopped as he couldn't feel dry ground under his paws anymore. He looked to the ground and a silent scream escaped his throat.  
In front if his paws, right in front o his paws…there was Glîn's head.  
Shocked and shattered by this unnatural sight he couldn't utter a sound.  
The blood soaked the ground, it drank it.  
"Revenge…" he shook and didn't even lift his head when saw the young female puma, the sister of the pup he had killed who threw a cold look at her.  
"Why did you have to…behead her…" Orúi chulped and bend his back. The huge eyes of the dead vixen didn't shine anymore. The honesty was gone.  
The young puma licked her mouth: „My parents wouldn't have done it, they said it was the circle of life. But I know better, you miserable fox. My brother was innocent, he just wanted to stop you and you killed him. My beloved little brother! I beheaded her because you ripped his throat apart. You shall suffer double my pain! The stag told me that you've had a reason to come over to our ground. He promised to hold you back so I get everything done in time. I followed your trail and found her, who asked for you and wanted to flee. He died just before you got here."  
Orúi grimaced disbelievingly: "But why? Why did the stag betray me?"  
She coldly glanced into his eyes, but he could see the pain in her eyes that she couldn't hide away.  
"One doesn't sin with a pure heart. One doesn't do a criminal act if he cared for the law. You didn't follow both, you brought something human like revenge into this wood. But this doesn't affect me. You took my brother, I took your vixen."  
Orúi sank his head and waited to get killed by her as well, but when he looked up again she was gone. He looked into Glîn's eyes once more: "Love…I loved you.""  
Joker's voice got lower. Before anyone could say anything, his voice rose up again: "The last thing one has heard or seen from the ordinary red fox Orúi is that he dragged himself into the sea of flowers in the crone dale, with all the injuries he had gotten in the fight with the mountain lion.  
The deep red flowers bid him welcome, but the snow white ones got stained by his blood and faltered because of the imbalance caused by the heavy drops. It is said that he lifted his head, looking into the blue morning sky and whispering: "Indeed, love is a foolish thing.""


End file.
